My mind is spinning even after I escort-well, more like shove, cause Ariel told me to keep a close eye on the four captives-Lily-I think that's her name-back to her little room. I'm about to head back to my quarters, when a snappy voice cuts the air.

"Finn!" Ariel screams at me.

"Yes, your highness?" I ask mockingly. You see, I'm an orphan and one day Ariel discovered me, thinking that I would someday make a nice guard for her. However, she treats me like the rest of the guards here at her company, which is basically crap. We have to sleep in disgusting areas in the underground floors Ariel keeps her trash in, eat only two times a day, and how about I mention that we get whipped if a teeny tiny little oops happens?

Her face turns red instantly, as it always does, but nothing comes out of her lips. Finally she spits, "Your shift is over."

"Thanks." I head out, pretending to go to my quarters, but really taking an elevator down until I finally reach the ground level, glancing back at the tall building. To every other random New York citizen, it just seems like a regular building, but the place hides many secrets people are too oblivious to pay attention to, such as the leader who's developed an interest in taking spirits captive and doing whatever she wants to them. 

I go to a McDonald's shop, meeting eyes with the guy at the front desk, also know as His Majesty, King Harold of Spiritia in disguise. I know, ironic name. Cue the trumpets. Why no one's ever heard of him? It's cause he's a spirit, all the way from the 1600's, and he used to be a guy named Jacob West, apparently some unknown person who lived through the Salem Witch trials. He had a sister, Eugenie, who also died-duh-cause she was accused of being a witch, which she actually was. Cue some dramatic music. So when Harold and some others founded the Land of Spirits-highly populated due to Eugenie's wizardry- Eugenie got free and wandered off like any cliche witch would do, causing havoc in who-knows-where. 

And because Harold once found me on the street and was drunk, he thought I was a spirit and told me all about his kingdom. A day later, he forbid me to tell anyone else, and I started working as a spy between the spirit and human worlds. There's a digital watch I keep that buzzes when the spirits call to me. This, apparently, is one of those times it sounded.

Anyways, Harold nods, presses the "Fanta" button on the drinks thing three times, and I head into the bathroom. A scanner has already popped up on the toilet, so I press my finger at it so that it opens a door to the realms of Spiritia. 

Spiritia looks like your typical fantasy dream kingdom. It's in a faraway land, possibly even in a different dimension totally different from the modern world on Earth. There's a stone castle-duh-with dark "enchanted" woods miles away, filled with "mischief and magic", Eugenie's doing, but most of the creatures who live in there are friendly now, due to the doings of a wizard with the name of Eagle. I know, who the hell names their kid after a bird? Apparently, Eagle's mom did, whoever she was.

I step into the soft green grass of the land, and as soon as that happens, water floods my sight, spinning and spinning until I collapse on the ground, panting and vomiting well water, and scowl at the twenty year old gatekeeper, three years older than me, guarding the entrance. "William, that sure wasn't what I expected. Coming up a well? Really?" I feel like anyone's allowed to act like a jerk around him; he's such a perfectionist. Bet he used to strip the petticoats off those creepy Victorian dolls in his time.

"Sorry, Sir," William replies in a British accent. Another fact: Most of the inhabitants of Spiritia come from England in the 1400s to the 1700s, so the life here isn't exactly fancy gadgets, Ferraris, and Tickle Me Elmos. They also dress in stuff like colonial clothing.

The guard continues. "His Highness thinks it's safer to use a well, as it's none of your concern anyway." He sniffs. 

I resist the urge to punch him in the eye and continue walking towards the castle's entrance. The door opens with a small creak

"GREETINGS THERE FINN!" I hear before getting tackled by a short girl the same age as me with white blond hair and brown eyes. She's so happy that you can practically see the freckles across her nose and cheeks dancing. 

"Excited, aren't we, Abbey?" I ask and get up. 

"Well, the sun sure is rising!" She grins. By the way, Abbey is autistic, so she sometimes uses limericks-no, metaphors-instead of sentences. Autism was also the cause of her death. People were huge dicks back then, and obviously Abbey didn't make the cut for them. She was often too happy, too wild, too "weird", but what really ticked her father most was in the December of 1759, when her sister Katelyn, also a huge perfectionist, who now flirts with William, died, Abbey said something inappropriate, which angered everyone so she was burned. Of course, all this came from Katelyn, so some things may be false.

She continues. "Abbey heard that there is a group of fleeing spirits here! Supposedly from some person called Ariel."

Ariel. Gulp. Lily must've been fleeing too, but got caught, along with three others, I think. Which is why Harold's in the human world, cause I told him about the spirits, and he's trying to find them so he could recruit them into his kingdom. So he got a disguise as a McDonald's worker near Ariel's building, trying to figure out how to sneak in.

Abbey wanders off, so I go to my room and stay there until a servant calls me. "Ms. Battersea would like to see you in the throne room."

So I make my way there and bow down to Katelyn, who's sitting perched on a huge throne-yup, she's second in command of this kingdom-waiting for her to say, "rise." But when she does, I just keep on bowing to make her annoyed.

Katelyn quickly gets exasperated. "Mr. Gardner, I will report to His Highness if you don't stop this disobedience." I get up with no worry. Katelyn is so flirty and stuck up that she will forget about telling Harold in about half an hour. And the king and I are on pretty good relationships.

I paste an easygoing smile on my face. "Your Majesty, nothing new's going on. His Highness is still waiting to help the prisoners."

"Very well, dismissed." And that's always as far as my conversations with Abbey's sucky sister goes.

I walk out, exchange smirks with William, then hop down the well, walk out a McDonald's bathroom into the street, and regain my position as a guard for Ariel just as night falls.